‘Although the situation is better than last year, there have been quite a lot of problems due to lockdowns and coronavirus,’ says UT Immigration Officer Angelique Holtkamp. ‘Because of high numbers of infections, some embassies were closed down. This meant that, for a while, some non-EU students couldn’t get appointments and apply for visa needed for studying in Twente.’
Students in Indonesia and India have had the most problems, informs Holtkamp. ‘For safety reasons, embassies in Jakarta and Mumbai were shut down for weeks. There were also issues in Georgia, Turkey and Egypt. Thankfully, the embassies recently reopened and things are improving, but there is still a backlog of requests. Some students might receive their visas late.’
It is not yet possible to say exactly how many students are affected by this, but Holtkamp and her colleagues have received dozens of requests from non-EU students. ‘I estimate that thirty to fifty students had to change their embassies, so they could get their visa elsewhere. We expect 450 new non-EU students to come to the UT and we haven’t had many cancellations yet. So far it seems that the majority of students were able to find solutions and will be able to come on time.’
